Case Blue 2d Kharkov
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Case Blue. Another monster's monster.
I'd had the 2d Kharkov scenario OOB sorted for months, and my usual opponent for these sorts of games, CC, mentioned he wanted to play some OCS or similar fairly heavy weight game. Case Blue 2d Kharkov sprang to mind immediately, it was an easy sell to him.
The week before we played, I set everything up so we would be able to jump right in and play. We budgeted 2 full days for the effort, noon to 8 pm on Dec. 30, and 10 am to 10 pm on Dec. 31, 2016. Can't think of a better way to close out the year.
I also stocked up on food the weekend before, so we had an enormous amount of vittles available. As it turned out, we more than we could eat, but that's a good problem to have. Sucks to break in the middle of a game to go get food, hurts the flow. As a treat, I also picked up some heavy cream and made very strong sweet black tea with lots of cream.
Here's the setup on May 12, 1942:
This is the top of Turn 5, where my Russians realized their failure and conceded the game. There would be just no way to get enough VPs in the turn such that the upcoming German half turn couldn't get them back.
As you can see, the Soviet salient south of Kharkov has pulled way back. Unfortunately, they can't pull all the way back west of the Donets river, as having units east of the Donets prevent 10 German VPs.
It turns out the Strategy & Tactics game Kharkov models this same scenario. It will be interesting to play through that game as well, and see how it plays out. Presumably there is a viable strategy for Soviet victory in that game.